During in-plant processing, many objects, containers and other materials are often required at certain stages of their handling to be moved laterally a few feet or less as they proceed forward along production lines. Various types of conveyor systems are utilized during product manufacturing and processing, and it is quite common to transport unfinished and finished goods along conveyor lines. Bottling and filling plants utilize multiple conveyor lines quite often and frequently it is desirable to reduce two, three, four or more conveyor lines to a single line at some point during the bottling or filling process. For example, one capping machine may have the capacity to cap or seal the production from three or more filling machines and in order to save time and operate a plant more efficiently, it is desirable to supply a single capping machine with the output from three filling machines which for example may be moved along three individual lines. Consequently, the uncapped containers must be transported to a single conveyor or "integrated" to "feed" the capping equipment. Since the containers that are being handled are full of a liquid, extreme care must be used to prevent spillage and hence, movement from one conveyor to another is extremely tedious and any movement must be smooth to avoid tilting and spillage which can result in down time for the conveyor and equipment. Such additional labor costs for cleanup and maintenance operations contribute to higher consumer prices and lessening of market demand.
With this background in mind, the present invention was developed and one of its objectives is to provide a rotatable camming means for transporting an object from one conveyor to another smoothly and efficiently.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an apparatus which will deliver an object from one conveyor to the exact location on another conveyor.
It is still another objective of the present invention to provide an apparatus which will coordinate the spacing between objects on a second conveyor.
It is still yet another objective of the present invention to provide an apparatus for transporting containers filled with liquid from one conveyor to another conveyor without tilting or spilling the container.
It is another objective of the present invention to provide an apparatus for moving objects from one conveyor to another which is relatively inexpensive to manufacture and easy to maintain.
Various other advantages of the present invention will be recognized in the description and drawings which follow.